EUIPO loses champagne TM appeal

The EU General Court has overruled the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in a champagne trademark dispute, marking a win for the owner of the Armand de Brignac brand.

The dispute arose after German company Munich Accessories filed to register a series of three-dimensional EU marks featuring champagne bottles.

Ace of Spades Holdings, a New Jersey-based company which owns US trademarks for ‘Armand de Brignac’, opposed the application, citing five EU marks also depicting wine and champagne bottles.

The marks included bottles of various colours, including gold, purple, and black. Each features the ace of spades design associated with Armand de Brignac.

Ace of Spades claimed Munich’s designs were too similar to its own trademarks and would cause confusion in the marketplace.

The Armand de Brignac owner was initially unsuccessful, with the EUIPO finding little similarity between the opposing marks and therefore no likelihood of confusion.

But in a judgment issued this week, the General Court said the EUIPO failed to carry out a proper assessment of the similarity between the marks.

According to the court, the EUIPO focused only on the differences between the bottle design, therefore falling short of the “global assessment” required under EU law.

The EUIPO’s error, the court found, was to not take into account elements of the Ace of Spades designs which could be considered similar to Munich Accessories’ application, because it didn’t consider them distinctive enough.

This was because the EUIPO had adopted an “incorrect premise” that non-distinctive elements cannot have a significant contribution to a mark’s overall impression, the judgment said.

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